Discuss the cost of AG, Extract and Kit brewing.

[MightyMouth]

Hey all,

I was wondering about the costs of each type of brewing. We all know what it cost for kits but for those of you who have done Extract and/or AG brewing, ignoring the cost of equipment, have you worked out the average cost of an individual brew day for a typical 23l length? Does it work out cheaper in the long run? Do you buy the grain and hops etc. in bulk or do you buy them 1kg/500g at a time sort of thing?

[Garth]

costs will vary for most people on here, some get malt/hop/yeast from microbreweries, some have to add postage if they are in a remote location or nowhere near a HBS,

I pick up all my stuff from a HBS, so apart from a little diesel a normal brew would cost me:-

Malt £6-7
Hops £1.50
Yeast £1.50
Whirlfloc/Sanitizer 50p

so say maybe a tenner?

this obviously does not include electricity or water (I'm on a meter)

Cost doesn't really bother me now as much as it did when I first started, if its going mean putting two or even three vac-pacs of hops in then I will, if the beer is going to be better for it.

I reckon a lot of folk on here started homebrewingto make drinking cheaper, I'm more bothered about making decent tasting beer, it being a load cheaper than pubs and shops is just really a bonus

[MightyMouth]

Garth, Is that for AG or Extract?

[Aleman]

I tend to buy my bulk malts (Pale and Pilsner) in 25Kg sacks, and other malts as I need them

From the homebrew shop I just picked up 50Kg of Pale for 50 quid, so pale is £1/kg

Looking at my last brew I used

10Kg of Pale, 1.5Kg of Munich @1.95/Kg, 0.5Kg of Pale Crystal @2.35/Kg and 05.Kg of Pale Chocolate Malt @ 2.35

so that 15.23 for the Malt.

1 Block of Styrian Goldings at 3 Quid, 100g NZ Saaz at 3.50 so 6.50 for hops, so 21.77 for 76L (133 Pints) of beer so 16p per pint for ingredients. On top of that should go Gas and Leccy, but I'd be using that anyway even if it was extract.

[MightyMouth]

DaaB,

I am really interested in AG brewing more than extract as I like really nice tasting beer and that seem the way to get the best beer possible. It seems that with extract brewing unless it was significantly cheaper there really wouldn't be any benefit over a decent kit like the brupak ones or even a cheaper kit with added hops and/or a few speciality grains.

[Garth]

that's for AG MightyMouth, I missed extract brewing and went from kits to AG when I realised it would work out more expensive, as DaaB says, it works out more than the most expensive premium kits, it's the malt extract that puts it up, kg for kg, it's roughly the same as a kit, then you have hops to add, whereas kits are already hopped and/or have teabags in with the price.

you can be AG brewing for much less than you think, you can always elaborate with better gear later on.

[Garth]

From the homebrew shop I just picked up 50Kg of Pale for 50 quid, so pale is £1/kg

either that was a while back or he's being generous and forgotton to put his prices up,

malt round here has gone up about 40%

where is the shop? I'm coming with a trailer to stock up.

[Aleman]

From the homebrew shop I just picked up 50Kg of Pale for 50 quid, so pale is £1/kg

where is the shop? I'm coming with a trailer to stock up.

Hamstead Homebrew, Tell Chris that Tony sent you . . . Of course they did say that they had to return grain give the price increases. It would have cost them more to put it on the shelves than it did to return it!

I do wonder if this is going to be the death knell for AG brewing for a lot of the smaller retailers, as they just won't be able to afford to carry it. Its going to be fine for those brewers that buy from local craft breweries, but those of us that use the retail trade may well see a dramatic reduction in the number and quality of malts available generally

[MightyMouth]

Well I already have 2 Plastic Fermenting Buckets and 1 Barrel type fermenting vessel 2 of which have taps along with 2 Fishtank heaters, a hydrometer, a thermometer loads of tubing etc, 2 cornies and a Widget World CO2 setup so not much to get for AG except permission form SWMBO to spend 6 hours brewing each month or more.

[Garth]

I also wondered about the price increase killing off small HB shops

Hops will be ridiculously priced soon also, Talking to John at H&G at the weekend, he reckons the next couple of years will be 'interesting'...

[MightyMouth]

I do wonder if this is going to be the death knell for AG brewing for a lot of the smaller retailers, as they just won't be able to afford to carry it. Its going to be fine for those brewers that buy from local craft breweries, but those of us that use the retail trade may well see a dramatic reduction in the number and quality of malts available generally

Don't say that, I only just started

Anyway, with the pending beer price increases it will still be a lot cheaper to home brew so hopefully there will still be a market for them.

[Garth]

a couple of element/leads fitted into a suitable plastic bin and a grain bag, and you're just about set.

[MightyMouth]

a couple of element/leads fitted into a suitable plastic bin and you're just about set

Yea, I have just put a bunch of computer equipment on ebay to try to clear out the garage a little so I have room to brew as SWMBO would flip out if I tried to do it in the kitchen (ooh err missus). After that is gone I reckon I'll get to it.

[Garth]

if you can get into the garage to brew, all the better, I practically destroyed a kitchen by brewing in it what with steam from boiling a HLT almost dry, floods from open taps, melting a fridge top by putting the boiler on it etc

just stupidity really, you're probably more careful than me

[MightyMouth]

Ok so if you buy in bulk presumably you bits left over, How long do these last? Do you find that you manage to use it all eventually or do you wind up throwing some away.